STUDIES IN NATURE 



to be seen in places. The Romans were the 

 greatest road-builders the world has ever 

 known, and road-building and bridge-making 

 were honourable professions in their eyes. 



After they left the country, the roads were 

 not properly kept up, and gradually fell out of 

 repair, but they were still used, and many cen- 

 turies later we find the same roads carrying the 

 traffic of the country. As the land became 

 more settled and fields were enclosed, hedges 

 and walls were placed along the roads also, and 

 sometimes broad margins of grass were left at 

 the sides for horsemen to ride on, and to pas- 

 ture the herds and flocks that might be driven 

 along them. Then came the mail coaches and 

 travelling chaises, and an increase in the number 

 of inns and posting-houses along the highways. 

 The railways in the middle of the nineteenth 

 century put an end for a time to the long dis- 

 tance traffic on the roads, and they again fell 

 somewhat into disrepair, until bicycles and 

 motor-cars seem likely once more to bring them 

 into more general use. 



This, in a few words, is probably the history 

 of many of our great roads. We can find them 

 on a map stretching across England from east 

 to west, from north to south. There is one, 

 the great North road, running from London to 

 York and on into Scotland ; there is another from 

 London to Bath and on to Exeter; another 

 from London to Dover through Canterbury ; a 



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